Key outside the UPA allies the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party today slammed the Rail budget, saying it was anti-poor and ignored areas of Uttar Pradesh which need rail infrastructure for economic development.
“I have never seen such an anti-people budget in my political life.... This is a budget for the Congress...You can give new trains for Rae Bareli (Lok Sabha constituency of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi), but don’t ignore Bundelkhand and Poorvanchal,” SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav told reporters outside Parliament House.
BSP supremo Mayawati expressed similar sentiments saying the rail budget was a “disappointment”. “The poor and middle classes will not benefit much from it.... Fare has been hiked through backdoor,” she said.
The Railway Budget for 2013-14 today spared passengers from any further hike in fares but raised various other charges on tickets along with freight tariff of less than 5 per cent.